Stats fans rejoice, MLS will improve data collection

This may not sound like a huge deal, unless you've ever tried to comb through the barren landscape of MLS statistics. Have you ever seen "The Road Warrior?" It was that kind of barren. Beyond goals scored and assists (and, in the first few years, goals plus assists), you didn't get anything else.

This news makes me practically giddy. Opta works with major broadcasters, publishers, sponsors, governing bodies and professional clubs. If you want to look at what kind of data this might bring, check out the Bundesliga's site.

“For many years we have heard a desire from our fans for more in-depth statistics,” said Chris Schlosser, director of digital strategy for MLS. “We are very excited to partner with Opta to bring this critical information to our passionate fans. This deal will allow for deeper analysis of all MLS matches and ensure that MLS is at the cutting edge of data technologies in 2011 and beyond.” MLS and Opta will build a new North American data collection hub in MLS' Digital Headquarters in New York. From this hub, hundreds of MLS and other North American soccer games will be analyzed with the data available for use by MLSsoccer.com, participating broadcasters and other interested media outlets. “This is a very exciting new step for our business,” said Opta's chief executive officer Aidan Cooney. “Our pioneering technology creates digital blueprints of each match, enabling rich statistical and graphical insights into the game's tactics and strategies. This is an opportunity to take soccer to a new, but statistics hungry, audience in the United States.”

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If you can keep your head when all about youAre losing theirs and blaming it on you,If you can trust yourself when all men doubt youBut make allowance for their doubting too,If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,Or being hated, don't give way to hating,And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;If you can meet with Triumph and DisasterAnd treat those two impostors just the same;If you can bear to hear the truth you've spokenTwisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:If you can make one heap of all your winningsAnd risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,And lose, and start again at your beginningsAnd never breath a word about your loss;If you can force your heart and nerve and sinewTo serve your turn long after they are gone,And so hold on when there is nothing in youExcept the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;If all men count with you, but none too much,If you can fill the unforgiving minuteWith sixty seconds' worth of distance run,Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!